This week I got a call from an “SEO Expert” in Toronto. The man said that he was calling from Royal Tech and was checking out my site and guaranteed a first page placement. I asked which search engine he was referring to (that would be important don’t you think?) Google was the answer.
I told him that I would expect first contact by an Internet business (especially those selling Internet marketing servies) would be via email, not the phone. I asked him if he knew that I was already on page 2, first entry on google for my most import keyword and was already on page 1 for some others. He said no. I asked if he knew how old the site was, he replied no. I told him that my site was about a month old and I feel that I will be on the first page in Google without his help. He said “I can get you there sooner” Me says: How soon and how would you do it? He says: I can do it in less than a week and will use PPC!
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I am a real estate agent not expert at SEO. At times I even find doing keyword research tedious. And if it wasn’t for the various Firefox extensions I’d be lost when evaluating my SEO effort and my competition.
I use a few Firefox extensions, like SEO for Firefox, SEOQuake, SearchStatus etc. They all are good at what they do and also overlap in certain areas. However, I have been looking for that one tool that would automate monitoring my site for specific keywords. And today I found SheerSEO.
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February 29, 2008 – 7:14 pm
Wireless broadband is now available to all Telus Mobility customers in BC and Alberta. The new EVDO network is up to 15x faster than the old 1x network. Although the EVDO speeds do not rival the at home broadband services, they are comparable.
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February 29, 2008 – 5:39 pm
What is Squidoo?
Simply, Squidoo is a social media site you can use to either make money (not really concerned to real estate marketing) or to drive traffic to your real estate site.
You create a Squidoo lens and share information with whoever visits the lens. A lens is a single web page you create with information you want to share. It can be about anything. You can promote your website, blog or company, write a Top 10 list of your favorite local restaurants or a how-to guide about getting started in your favorite hobby. It’s a great outlet for sharing on the Web without the commitment to maintaining a whole site.
Here are my Squidoo lenses:
http://www.squidoo.com/surrey_langley_realestate
http://www.squidoo.com/bcblueberries
http://www.squidoo.com/realestatetechnews
February 14, 2008 – 10:05 pm
The other day while surfing a local real estate investment forum I came across a seemingly innocent post from a member asking for a recommendation for a real estate agent. A reply to the requested mentioned a real estate agent and that this particular agent had one of the greatest real estate agent websites. I responded to the comment by saying that a very few real estate agents operating in the local market actually have useful websites, most are just offering canned content and add the "your house has it’s own website" fluff.
Another member took exception to me claiming that these "your house has it’s own website" offers were fluff. A little digging into this member’s history indicated that he was a real estate agent too and offered one of these sites as part of his highly successful Internet Marketing campaign that resulted in a lot more exposure to the properties that he lists.
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February 6, 2008 – 2:01 am
I have finally been able to launch my Fraser Valley real estate site. Once we received the IDX approval from the board and the contracts were signed, it was a matter of weeks to completion. Be sure to check out the pages for buyers looking for real estate in Fraser valley and the Google maps based real estate listing search for the Fraser Valley and the Lower Mainland.
The site also features tips on selling real estate in the Fraser Valley. For those looking to purchase acreage or agricultural farmland in the Fraser Valley, a separate page has been setup with Fraser Valley rural real estate listings.
Be sure to check out the site and be sure to let me know what you think.
January 29, 2008 – 12:26 pm
It seems that Google is currently playing games with one of my blogs. Over the last week or so my blog at www.realestate-fraservalley.com has completed disappeared when a search is done for it’s main keyword. A day (at times hours) later it is back on the first page, but has lost a few positions on the first page.
It seems that Google has assessed me a penalty (#6 penalty). You can read more about it on Aaron Wall’s blog post on this issue. I am no SEO expert and have no idea why this blog was penalized. The only thing that I can think of is the blogroll linking to my other two blogs. I have since removed the blogroll and continue to investigate what caused me to drop in the ranking (and disappear for a few days).
January 16, 2008 – 12:19 am
Windows Live Writer is out of beta testing and Microsoft has released version 1.0 as a free download. If you blog on a regular basis as a part of your on-line real estate marketing, then this tool is a must have.
In the past I did a review of Live Writer Beta, Ecto and Qumana. Ecto and Qumana are only available for Mac OS X and Live Writer only for Windows. Although being a Mac fanatic, I still preferred Live Writer due to it’s ease of use and features.
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October 27, 2007 – 5:52 pm
Why do Realtors blog?
Most web and SEO savvy Realtors blog to increase their authority on the web. Blogs add fresh content to your site. Blogging is generally considered to be less formal than an article on your site. Realtor blog about different things: buying or selling statistics in their local area, open houses, mortgage finances etc.
A few Realtors have a main site and a blog or two hosted elsewhere. In my case, my main Fraser Valley real estate site is still under development due to a snag we have hit with getting the IDX contract approved by our local board. I also maintain three other sites as blogs: this one, my blog on blueberry farming in the Fraser Valley region of BC and my blog on Fraser Valley real estate information.
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